This event is fast and furious, so I've got to keep it in list format again:
- Apparently, I was wrong about Todd Malicoat - he has a crush on me (pictures to prove this later), not Lisa Barone. On the female side of the aisle, there is a girl that he's devoted to, but she's not at the conference, so we don't get to meet her :(
- In other news, I interviewed Vanessa Fox for WebProNews a few hours ago and actually had a terrific chat about Sitemaps - format, signals, what to use it for and what they really pay attention to in the meta data you can provide (the interview should be live next week).
- Prior to Vanessa's chat with me, I asked her to make an addition to the Google Webmaster Guidelines page, noting how important it can be to deliver either a 404 or a 200 for a robots.txt request. Apparently, Google might have big problems crawling sites that have server errors or timeouts when requesting the robots file.
- We visited the Art Institue of Chicago today and had a terrific time. I highly recommend going if you can make it to the city - their collection is fantastic (and yes, they have that Seurat work that's featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
- Matt Cutts' Pubcon callout of a gentleman who ran a lot of "spammy-looking" sites is getting a good bit of press and discussion - should Google be punishing sites because they're owned by operators of other, unsavory properties?
- My post on TLA's transparency stirred up some anger with Patrick's crew - my apologies there. Luckily, I have no such beef with ReviewMe, which is an excellent service model in my opinion - more on that later.
- Loren Baker's got a fancy new design... ours is behind schedule, as always, but I promise it's good.
- Calcanis lost the respect of a lot of folks in the webmaster industry this morning; according to attendees, hypocrisy & bad-mouthing the folks who hired you for a keynote don't go together as well as Jason might have thought.
- Google threw a closed-door party tonight that upset more folks. Quite a few big Google partners and spenders (who griped about it on the expo hall floor) were not invited. Now it's MSN's turn to snub would-be party-goers at the next conference :)
- The high today in Chicago was 26... low around -10. It's chilly, to say the least.
- SEOmoz auctioned off a link last night at Alan Dick's Vintage Tub & Bath party. He'd prefer I use the anchor text - clawfoot tubs. Note to self - add sponsoring events and inviting bloggers to list of good link building tactics.
- Hatbait is hilarious - great photos and a great idea from Liana.
For those Chicago SES attendees who are reading - anything I missed that needs to be discussed?
WA-HAHAHAHAHA!! Holy Crap!
Thanks for that, Chris.
Much obliged.
Funny thing is, I spent two days max bidding on Google for the phrases "SEO". SEARCH OPTIMIZATION", and "SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION" for the first two days of SES Chicago and nobody even noticed!
I was hoping people would be doing vanity searches while there, and that it would make a few WOMM monsters buuzz about it a bit. I spent $1350,38 for 98 clicks (almost 14k impressions)
The ads were awesome too. My fav was:
SEOBoyBand.com LinkBait? Wow, Act now! This ad copy is incredible. www.Chris-Hooley.com
but I was alaso fond of
SEOBoyBand.com Freee hot SEO pics XX Don't worry, we aint naked. www.Chris-Hooley.com
and
Free hot SEO pics LinkBait? Wow, Act now! This ad copy is incredible. www.Chris-Hooley.com
Oh well, not every marketing stunt idea is a gem... I just thought this one had a 0 chance of failure!
Surely all you had to do was call yourself SEOFanBoi, and you'd have been on the tip of everyone's tongue ;)
HatBait... sounds familiar... Liana! Your domain on your pics looks better than mine did on DrinkBait, which makes me really mad!
Eff that, I'm starting an SEO BoyBand... Rand you in? (your predetermined answer is yes BTW)
I don't know whether to laugh or regurgitate last night's meal... You've got way too much Photoshop time on your hands, Chris :)
That is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
So Rand, how is Mystery Guest handling the groupies and fan mail with nude girl pics enclosed?
Oh...
Wow.
That's all I can say.
Holy crap, it's so haunting...yet...can't...look...away...
Lynn Terry made an excellent point about Review Me on her blog here.
https://www.clicknewz.com/430/another-look-at-reviewme/
Her point is that if advertisers know that a blogger is getting 50% of the fee they are paying through Review Me, why wouldn't they contact the blogger themselves and make the offer to them directly thus saving themselves 50% of the fee?
Her solution is to revise the payment structure to something closer to 80-20 rather than 50-50. I thought that made a lot of sense. A 50% finders fee does seem high.
She makes another good point asking after the initial buzz wears off is anyone else getting solicted for any reviews through Review Me.
Only a couple of things come to mind...
1) Companies like True Local understand the importance of throwing a party - even if by invite where the venue is too damn small for everyone to get in. Anyway, back to the point - get with it Google - SES San Jose is not the only conference that deserves an open party.
2) You better mention the kick ass Italian dinner that Troy and Jarrod covered.